5.  The applicant was born in 1953 and lives in Zagorzyce.
6.  The applicant is married and has children. Prior to her application for pension she was employed for twenty-six years and paid her social security contributions to the State.
7.  On 18 September 2001 the applicant filed an application with the Rzeszów Social Security Board (Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych) to be granted the right to an early-retirement pension for persons raising children who, due to the seriousness of their health condition, required constant care, the so-called EWK pension.
8.  Along with her application for a pension, the applicant submitted, among other documents concerning her daughter’s health condition, a medical certificate issued by a specialist medical centre on 4 September 2001. The certificate stated that the child (born in 1987) suffered from asthma and other disorders and was in need of the parent’s constant care.
9.  On 25 September 2001 the Rzeszów Social Security Board (“the SSB”) issued a decision granting the applicant the right to an early‑retirement pension as of 1 September 2001 in the net amount of 632 Polish zlotys (PLN).
10.  The Social Security Board initially suspended the payment of the pension due to the fact that the applicant was still working on the date of the decision. On 30 September 2001 the applicant resigned from her full-time job in a private company where she has been working since 1985. Afterwards, payment of the pension was resumed.
11.  On 29 May 2002 the Rzeszów Social Security Board requested the Main Social Security Board’s doctor (Główny Lekarz Orzecznik) to inform it whether the applicant’s daughter required the permanent care of a parent. On 8 July 2002 the doctor stated that, on the basis of the medical documents, the child in question could not be considered as ever having required such care.
12.  On 31 July 2002 the Rzeszów Social Security Board issued simultaneously two decisions in respect of the applicant. By virtue of one decision, the payment of the applicant’s pension was discontinued with immediate effect. By virtue of the other decision, the Board reopened the proceedings, revoked the initial decision granting a pension and eventually refused to award the applicant the right to an early-retirement pension under the scheme provided for by the Cabinet’s Ordinance of 15 May 1989 on the right to early retirement of employees raising children who require permanent care (Rozporządzenie Rady Ministrów z dn. 15 maja 1989 w sprawie uprawnień do wcześniejszej emerytury pracowników opiekujących się dziećmi wymagającymi stałej opieki) (“the 1989 Ordinance”).
13.  The applicant appealed against the respective decisions divesting her of the right to an early-retirement pension. She submitted that she should receive the benefit because her child required constant care, as confirmed by the medical certificate attached to the applicant’s original application for a pension. Moreover, the applicant alleged that the revocation of her retirement pension was contrary to the principle of vested rights.
14. On 3 June 2003 the Rzeszów Regional Court (Sąd Okręgowy) dismissed the appeal. The Regional Court concluded on the basis of the evidence, including expert medical evidence, that while indeed the applicant’s child suffered from asthma and other disorders she did not require her mother’s permanent care since her health condition did not significantly impair her body functions. The domestic court held that the applicant had been rightfully divested of her right to a pension under the scheme provided by the 1989 Ordinance as she did not satisfy the requirement of necessary permanent care.
15.  The applicant further appealed against the first-instance judgment.
16.  On 20 November 2003 the Rzeszów Court of Appeal (Sąd Apelacyjny) dismissed the appeal.
17.  On 29 April 2004 the Supreme Court (Sąd Najwyższy) refused to entertain the cassation appeal lodged by the applicant.
18.  Following the social security proceedings the applicant was not ordered to return her early-retirement benefits paid by the Social Security Board, despite the revocation of her right to the early-retirement pension.
19.  The applicant submitted that after the revocation of the EWK pension her situation had been very difficult. After the revocation of the pension the applicant was unemployed without a right to any benefit for three years and four months. On 23 November 2005 she was employed again by the company where she had worked before the revocation of the pension. She worked there until she qualified for early retirement.
20.  The Government submitted that the applicant had been unemployed from January 2003 until November 2005. She started working in November 2005 and was employed until November 2008, when she was granted an early retirement pension in the amount of PLN 1,000 per month. The applicant’s husband had also been employed periodically between 2001 and 2004. The applicant’s eldest son had worked temporarily in 2001 and 2002. Since 2006 he has been employed without interruption. The applicant also owned a farm of 1.47 ha.
21.  In addition, the Government submitted information as regards various types of social benefits available in Poland. However, they have failed to specify which of those benefits, if any, were available in the applicant’s situation.
22.  Under the relevant laws currently in force, it appears that the applicant will qualify for a regular retirement pension in 2013.
23.  Some 130 applications arising from a similar fact pattern have been brought to the Court. The majority of the applicants form the Association of Victims of the SSB (Stowarzyszenie Osób Poszkodowanych przez ZUS) (“the Association”), an organisation monitoring the practices of the Social Security Board in Poland, in particular in the Podkarpacki region.
24.  Out of all applications lodged with the Court, about twenty-four applicants decided not to lodge a cassation appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal given in their case.
25.  One hundred-and-four applicants lodged cassation appeals against the final judgments given in their cases. The Supreme Court entertained and dismissed on the merits fifteen appeals. In eighty-one applications the Supreme Court refused to entertain cassation appeals on the ground that they did not raise any important legal issue or make it necessary for the Supreme Court to give a new interpretation to legal provisions which raised serious doubts or caused ambiguity in the jurisprudence of the domestic courts. In the remaining eight cases cassation appeals were rejected for failure to comply with various procedural requirements.